Beautiful, edifying reflection on this Great & Holy Week.

God bless you all

Our Lord in heaven, as we go through this holy week, give us the grace and strength to walk in your path and carry up our cross, even through the persecution of the wicked. And for Christians in the diaspora who aren't living under violence and persecution, continue to grow in your faith and keep yourselves in communion with our Lord. Let us stay truthful and faithful in our daily tasks, whether under peaceful times or tribulent times.

Amen

🇷🇺 In Moscow, a muslim stabbed an Orthodox man right on the grounds of a church.

A man named Amir (reports say the name has been changed) entered the grounds of the Spassky Cathedral on Novoslobodskaya Street, where he attacked 56-year-old Ilyas Safiullin and brutally slashed the unfortunate man with a knife. The attacker was immediately apprehended afterward.

It is reported that Ilyas had been a parishioner of this church for many years.

Source: Mnogonacional (Russian immigration watch group)

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another."

+ Our Lord Jesus Christ (St John 13:34)

Oh Jesus our God wash or hearts and intentions, with the water of your Holy Spirit and purify us on this Holy Thursday

Though I have transgressed, O Good One,
more than the harlot,
I have never offered Thee a flood of tears.
but, praying in silence,
I fall down before Thee,
with love embracing Thy most pure feet,
that Thou as Master mayest grant me remission of sins.
And I cry to Thee, O Saviour:
Deliver me from the defilement of my evil deeds.
(Kontakion, Tone 4, from Church chantings on Great Wendsday).

The real reason why Christians can enjoy Holy Week in Syria is not because Jolani is so good and tolerant as Syrian and Western ‘activists’ say, but because there are armed neighbours who make terrorists think twice about breaking into a religious celebration.
God bless these men. The Eagles of Antioch.🇸🇾

Holy Friday

Saints, Feasts, and Readings for 04/18/2025

Saints and Feasts: Holy Friday; Holy Father John the Righteous, disciple of St. Gregory of Decapolis; Euthemios the Enlightener of Karelia; Cosmas, Bishop of Calcydon; John the New Martyr of Epiros; Athanasia the Wonderworker of Aegina

Strict Fast

Epistle Reading: I Corinthians 5:6-8
BRETHREN, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (Galatians 3.13-14) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us - for it is written, \"Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree\" - that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 27:62-66
On the next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, \"Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, 'After three days I will rise again.' Therefore order the sepulcher to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away, and tell the people, 'He has risen from the dead,' and the last fraud will be worse than the first.\" Pilate said to them, \"You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.\" So they went and made the sepulcher secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.

On Great Holy Saturday in the Orthodox Church we commemorate the burial of Christ and His descent into Hades. The Crucifixion of our Lord already happened and we are waiting for His Resurrection.

“Today Hades cries out groaning:
I should not have accepted the Man born of Mary.
He came and destroyed my power.
He shattered the gates of brass.
As God, He raised the souls I had held captive.
Glory to Thy cross and resurrection, O Lord!”
(Vesperal Liturgy of Holy Saturday)

“Betrayal, denial and cowardice were the hallmark of the Church on Good Friday. But from Christ we hear no blame… ‘for he himself knew what was in man.’ (John 2:25)

Christ gave Himself for us anyway. It is the very character of love.”

—Fr Stephen Freeman